Love and Pain
by jayer
Summary: Mike finds his feelings about Henry changing when the vampire saves his life. Post Heart of Ice
1. Chapter 1

It came out of no where. No time to think, no time to do anything but react. Mike yelled at his partner but it was too late. He pulled out his gun and fired, once, twice. He kept firing until the gun was empty. It did nothing. They cut through the whatever it was like it was air. Maybe it was air. But it was air that in a matter of seconds had sliced a man open. Graham, eyes still open in a horrified shock, was dead on the ground, his neck a gaping sick smile of a wound, his guts spilling out of more slices cut into his flesh.

Mike did the only thing he could think of. He ran. He ran and prayed. He didn't look back, he couldn't. He had never thought of himself as a coward but in that moment he was scared. No he was terrified. That thing, half man half rabid hell hound, was after him and a part of him knew that he wasn't going to escape. It was only a matter of time before he too was dead.

Still he ran, jumping over debris, knocking down anything he could in a vain attempt to slow down the monster. He tripped, feeling himself fall as he lost his footing and braced himself for the impact and the first blow from the hound man.

But it never came. Mike could feel a strange wind and heard a crash behind him. He rolled over, wincing from what was likely a fractured rib and to his shock saw Henry Fitzroy going toe to toe with the thing.

"Fitzroy." Mike gasped.


	2. Chapter 2

The vampire had no reason to help him. Not after Mike betrayed him to a demented and crazed vampire assassin. Vicki had been ready to bite him herself when it all went down. He'd endured a solid hour of Vicki railing on him about everything from treating her like a stupid child to acting like a jealous ass and most of all to not bothering to remember that Henry was still a man.

"He feels, Mike." She'd yelled at him. "He feels love and pain. Just like us. He chose to become what he is because he loved a woman. It was a crazy and stupid thing to do but even Henry can be crazy and stupid. Hell he was only 17. That's prime crazy and stupid time. He has to drink blood because it's what keeps him alive. And he wants to live. And you took that away from him like he's some unfeeling dog. Henry's not the monster, Mendoza is. And if he kills Henry . . ."

Mike watched helpless as Fitzroy was slammed against a wall. The creature turned back towards Mike. Fitzroy leaped onto the monster's back, the force knocking it down.

"Run you idiot" Fitzroy yelled at him just before he was knocked into the air.

Mike was only a few feet away when he heard the scream. It was Henry's throaty baritone. And it was in anguish. He looked back. The creature had gained the advantage and although Fitzroy was holding his own, he was clearly going to lose. In the moonlight, Mike could see streams of blood pouring from Henry's face, arms, chest. His shirt was ripped to pieces.

There had to be something he could do. He couldn't just stand there and watch Fitzroy die. The vampire jumped into the fight to save him. He couldn't just run. He might not particularly like the guy and yeah he would confess that he still had a torch for Vicki. But more than anything they were partners and friends. And even if he hated to admit it, he knew that Vicki was falling for the vampire. And it wasn't some game. Coreen had told him once that Fitzroy couldn't glam Vicki. He'd tried during the whole Norman Bridewell thing. Tried to make Vicki forget everything she'd seen. But she was somehow immune, a detail Coreen thought very romantic.

"Holy Shit." Mike gasped as a memory hit him.


	3. Chapter 3

He ran, as best he could the several yards to his car. He fumbled for his keys and opened the trunk. He found the box with his back up gun, a perfect match for the one he'd dropped as he had fled the monster.

"Thank you, Coreen." Next to the gun was a bag filled with hand molded silver bullets. Coreen had given them to him to kill a windigo and he'd dumped the extra handful in the gun box and forgotten them. He had no idea if they would work on a hell hound thing but she'd said something about silver and purifying and stopping demons. It was better than doing nothing.

Mike heard another scream more pained than the first. He stuffed the bullets into place as he scurried back inside the warehouse. Mike watched in sickening horror as the hound man monster pinned Henry to the ground. Mike could hear a sickening crunch as the thing's gaping jaw bit down on Henry's collarbone, snapping it in two.

Mike raised his gun, said a quick prayer and fired. The bullets stuck the thing, one in the head, two in the back. He jogged closer and fired three more times. All in the head. The thing didn't explode like the windigo but it did stop moving. Mike quickly slipped the safety back on his gun and tucked it into his waistband.

"Fitzroy." He pulled the monster off the vampire. "Oh dear God." He gasped. He dropped to his knees. "Fitzroy." The vampire wasn't moving. Mike searched for a spot that wasn't bloody and torn but there were few. As gently as he could, he shook the vampire's shoulder. "Fitz -- Henry."

He was rewarded with a gasp of pain, a scream of agony caught in the vampire's torn throat.

"Henry, hang on okay. Don't die. Please don't die. Vicki needs you." Mike frantically begged, lost for what to do. There on the ground, the vampire looked like the boy he once was. A boy very much in pain. Now that he was awake he was writhing in agony, screaming as best as he could. In the movies, vampires were unstoppable. They could heal themselves in a matter of moments. But Henry wasn't healing. He was dying.


	4. Chapter 4

Mike reached in his pocket for his cell phone. Vicki would know what to do.

"Hi You've reached Nelson Investigations. Please leave . . ." Her voice came from her machine.

"Vic, It's Mike. I need you to call me." He half shouted into the phone. "I'm down in the warehouse district and Henry's with me. This thing attacked him and he's hurt, really bad. I don't know what to do, Vic. I think he's dying. He's crazy in pain and there's so much blood."

Blood. Why didn't he think of that sooner. "Call me okay. As soon as you get this." Mike snapped his phone shut and sat down on the floor. Henry needed blood to live. Just like they did. If one of them was bleeding to death they get a transfusion. This was just the same. In principle.

Mike pulled his jacket off and rolled up his sleeves. He lifted Henry up as gently as he could, cradling the injured man against his chest. He pressed his bare wrist against the vampire's mouth, bracing for the bite. Nothing.

"Come on, Henry. You can do it." Mike coaxed him. "Drink, okay. You'll feel a lot better." He felt like he was talking to one of his kids. "It's okay, Henry. I trust you." He felt a sharp pain as Henry's fangs entered his arm. Then an odd warmth. After a moment he thought he could feel Henry's heart pounding in rhythm with his, the way he and Vicki would some how fall into sync when they spooned after sex. It was an odd thought to enter his mind and at the same time a perfect one since what he and Henry were doing was, in it's own way, intimate.

"Must be the blood loss." Mike shook his head, trying to shake out the bizarre thoughts. For a moment he wondered if he was in the legendary vampire thrall. "That's just stupid."

Mike heard a beeping from his phone. He reached for it, his head spinning.

"Mike, where are you?"

"Warehouse district. 5th and Vine. The old Masterson Furniture building."

"Are you hurt?"

"Nothing worse than any other day on the job." He was feeling light headed and sick.

"And Henry?"

"I don't know. Vic, just get here okay. We gotta get him out of here before any more cops come." It was the last thing Mike remembered before everything went black.


	5. Chapter 5

Mike woke up to darkness. Complete darkness. He felt hot and sweaty like he'd been sick for days.

He tried to sit up but his head had other ideas.

"Easy." A semi soothing voice came out of the darkness.

"Where's Vicki?"

"Asleep." A light clicked on behind him. The vampire was kneeling next to him. "Drink this."

"Orange juice?"

"It's good for you." Henry handed him the glass with a don't argue glare that would match his mother's. "I took more than I meant to. I'm sorry."

"You were hurt pretty bad."

"I'm usually in better control of my lust."

Mike downed the juice. "What was that thing?"

"A hell hound."

"Of course." Mike half laughed. "Were you hunting that thing?"

"No. I was in the neighborhood getting dinner from a friend." Henry said hesitantly. "I was walking home, enjoying the night when I recognized your smell and followed your scent."

"That's a bit creepy. But I'm glad you did." Mike paused. "But why? You were almost killed because of me. You could have let that thing rip me to pieces."

"No one deserves that death. No matter how big an ass he is. Besides, Vicki cares about you and it would have destroyed her to lose you."

Mike laughed.

"What?" Henry looked at him curiously.

"I was thinking the exact same thing when I was trying to save you."

Henry put out his hand. "Truce?"

Mike looked at the vampire for a long moment. Yes there was a part of him that was dark and even monstrous. A part of him that could and would kill a person. But in his line of work he'd seen totally human monsters that were just the same. And worse, he'd seen many that killed for the sick sexual pleasure of killing. Maybe once upon a time Henry had been like that. Once upon a time the lust, as he called it, had been so great he couldn't help but kill. But that was then, this was now. And now before him was a monster that was trying to be a good man. To be worthy of a woman he clearly cared about and it seemed cared about him despite his dark side. And a man noble enough to put aside differences to save a life that some might say he shouldn't have.

Mike grabbed Henry's hand firmly. "Truce."

Who knew, if they could both stop trying to be the alpha male in Vicki's life, maybe they could even be friends.


End file.
